History VideoGame / ABlurredLine

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: There are some people around in the game with blue and purple hair.

* AIIsACrapshoot: The Advocate, a program designed by a scientist named Eisen for the Agency to coordinate the construction of Catch Colony and allow it to be build ahead of anticipated shortage. It coordinated things very efficiently all right… but it was also very vain and unable to undertand death. Thus, when the Kingdom of Surl had sent missiles at Lashe and Prima City, The Advocate had actively refused to activate missile defences and prevented manual overrides, simply because it wanted to see an explosion. The military had to activate self-destruct countdown on the Advocate’s facility before it saw sense and shot the missiles down, though it was too late to spare itself from destruction.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The (altered) security camera footage of the Director’s assasination is monochrome. So is the flashback to the founding of the Paradise, and Talan’s recounting of the Flashbang vidcasts.

* ALoadOfBull: There’s a so-called Lair that lives in the labyrinth beneath the bandit hideout. It looks just like traditional minotaur, complete with a huge warhammer and a nose ring, but is never referred to by that name.

* StandardStatusEffects: Very standard. There’s poison, darkness and bleeding, and even effects rare in non-fantasy works like petrification (cured with De-Stonifier Potion.)

* BoringInvincibleHero: Max Powertrain from the Flashbang vidcasts Talan always watched in Lashe City. In the season four of the program, however, his personality changed after he’s been blinded for life by one of the thugs.

A freeware cyberpunk RPG made with RPG Maker 2000, ''[[https://rpgmaker.net/games/92/ A Blurred Line]]'' follows the story of Talan, a regular blue-collar worker at a factory run by the powerful Delcentric. When the Director of the Agency is assassinated after giving a speech at the factory Talan works at, Talan finds himself the prime suspect and goes on the run. It's then up to Talan to evade his pursuers while getting to the bottom of the mystery at hand.

The game is widely considered (within the VideoGame/RPGMaker community) to be one of the best games made with the program, due to its compelling storyline with meaningful non-linearity. Unfortunately, the game remains unfinished. Although the first two parts are complete, the final chapter, Line's End, was teased for a 2002 release, but since then, there has been no word on it.

* ArtifactMook: Slime Coaters, Aerobats and Scampering Lizards can be originally fought in the Drust Mines, but are also encountered in the Ill Marshes, which are separated by a whole lot of land and a mountain rang.

* BondVillainStupidity: Right after seeing that Talan is capable of resisting his psychic powers, a highly experienced Agency Captain decides to just leave and let regular Agency Guards take care of him.

* EasilyForgiven: Emily swiftly takes care of [[spoiler: Kersh]] once he loses his memory, thus forgiving his involvement in the [[spoiler: destruction of Surl and the razing of Paradise, her own hometown.]]

* EquipmentSpoiler: The items that cannot be equipped to the characters already present in the party (such as staffs or motor oil) show up early on, thus foreshadowing the presence of future party members.

* FieryRedhead: Corporal Dalia is considered to be that by the Director of the Agency, who says that though loyal, she lacks a gentle touch. When you actually get to play as her, however, she actually very professionally, and does admirable job of controlling her temper given the circumstances.

* GrievousBottleyHarm: A broken bottle can be found early on in the Rat Tracks. It’s stronger than a Bent Pipe that’s also lying around closely, but weaker than a Wrench you can pick up while still in Delcentric bulding.

* HealingCheckpoint: Averted, and without random encounters being so easy, it’s literally the only way the game still maintains some challenge.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing: Happens to [[spoiler: Kersh]], after Memnosyne [[spoiler: transfers the memories of Surl’s destruction into his mindto punish him for the false-flag attack that led to it]]. It doesn’t last, however, and he goes back to his evil self after [[spoiler: discovering the Package over in Surd]].

* HumanShield: The Agency’s training for Squad Leaders is specifically teaches them to ignore the hostages. This can be seen if you let Sern take the first watch outside Memnosyne’s house. When [[spoiler: she looks into his memories, it turns out that he, Drago and Isabella were all originally part of the Agency before defecting. Drago’s turning point was when he was asked by the examiner if he would kill a terrorist about to launch a nuclear device if they used Sern and Isabella as human shields.]]
* HiredGun: A Large Man on the street thinks that Talan is one of the best, and actually lives at Boss Wick’s place because he must have had been paid tons of creds to kill the Director. Of course, he’s totally wrong, as not only is Talan innocent, but he’s very poor as well.

** Then, there’s the battle against [[spoiler: Kersh]] at the Memnosyne’s house. He has quite a few powerful abilities, but can still be fought valiantly… up until the 10th turn or so, when Talan ends the battle himself, saying that he’s too strong.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Food snacks like a Bag of Chips,a Cold Sandwhich or Fresh Pita act as healing items, while Bottled Water and Cheap Wine restore SP.

* IgnoredEpiphany: Dalia hears the story of the Advocate and its inability to be controlled properly first-hand from Eisen,the scientist who has actually developed it. Yet, at the end of it, she still asks him to re-activate it like she’s been instructed to.

* InformedEquipment: Regardless of what kind of clothing you have Talan, Arden and other companions equip, they’ll still wear their starter equipment on their sprites.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: In Sorbe Village, it’s impossible to go on the bridge through to the other side of the town because the old lady is standing there.

* NoManWantsAnAmazon: Seems to be played straight, as Talan fails to develop feelings of any kind for the tough, tomboyish Arden in spite of having been with her for quite a while (assuming, of course, that he ends up with her as an early companion, instead of the robot or the Lazer Teeth agent). Yet, he instantly falls for the far more feminine Emily.

* OrphanedSeries: Seems to be the case now. The conclusion, titled ''Line's End'' was teased at the end of version 2.1, with a release date of Winter 2003. 12 years have passed since then with no update.
* OurGiantsAreBigger: There’s a so-called Lumbering Giant that’s traditional enemy with a club.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: There are the Green and Red Wylden, which are orc-like monsters equipped with swords that can be encountered on the World Map around Lashe City. Red ones are more powerful, but still quite easy to defeat.
* PaletteSwap: Done for quite a few enemies. For instances, Skilled Bandits look like Rogue Bandits with green cloaks, Mighty Shellocks are a purple version of regular Shellocks, Living Molds are toxic-pink versions of [=AlleyMuck=], etc.

* RoseHairedSweetie: Averted with Corporal Dalia, who is certainly not a nice person. She’s very stuffy and formal, and is also very ruthless. The latter is illustrated really well in [[spoiler: Sern’s dreams as seen by Memnosyne,]] where she considers the Agency Squad Leader test to be "incredibly easy". For reference, that test asks if you would sacrifice two of your friends for the sake of stopping a nuke launch by a crazed terrorist – i.e. something that would cause most people to at least question themselves, if not outright refuse to do it.

** Lampshaded by a person you meet in a Sorbe Village, who says that it pays to search in every nook and cranny while out in the wilderness, and that there was one time when he found a large axe on the side.

** The first decision will affect whether you arrive late or on time (and thus whether you'll have time to claim your last wage and a few other good things), and change your companion for the pre-Paradise sections: walking there gets Talan involved in street gang warfare, on the side of Neon Vipers, who later send a female member named Arden to help him. Waiting for the tram will result in Talan's credits stolen by a stolen goods merchants who compensates him with Ag 7-17, an outdated military droid that's good to go after Talan fixes it with a memory chip. Neither companion will make it into Paradise, however (Arden is captured, droid is forbidden by Paradise laws) and Talan will think about them in a DreamSequence.
** The decision about professions in Paradise will result in Talan going through three completely different quests before [[spoiler: Paradise is destroyed.]] Afterwards, this decision also determines which companion will fight alongside Talan and Emily: Sern if Talan is a Defender, Radin if he's a Farmer and Lerle if he's an Actor.

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Memnosyne tries to absorb Talan’s memories when he’s on guard duty, but discovers that he’s mind is too strong and he’s instead made contact with her mind, forcing her to drop it unless .

** They can be made a lot more powerful with Inscribe, but that requires Talan to have permanently absorbed both spells. Unless you grind a lot, that will not happen by the time you reach the end of the game.
** [=LifeForStrength=] and Sacrifice spells are similar. Quite simply, there isn’t a fight challenging enough to require Talan giving up all his health to damage the enemy or to heal others.
* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: There’s a flamethrower weapon for the AG 7-17 Droid. It’s good for barbecuing Snarling Wolves (who are weak to fire), but it’s no more powerful than Talan’s clubs vs. everyone else, and the Fire Blast ability is also rather disappointing compared to others on offer.

** Young Emily uses the same sprite as Sally Kesman, a girl from the Kingdom of Surl who [[spoiler: saw Kersh hack into a Surl's missile base in order to trigger launch and start the war.]]

--> ''"What...sort of person...can seal the fate...of millions...and still live...with himself?"''
--> -- '''Core''', during the game's introduction

* PermanentlyMissableContent:
** Mythril Armor. It’s the most powerful armor in the game, but if you fail to get it at the Paradise, there’s no other way to obtain it.
** The Pickaxes for Talan. Enchanted Pickaxe is the most powerful weapon Talan can wield, excepting those crafted by Sern. Yet, if you don’t buy it during the Defender test, there’s no other way to obtain it.

* LostForever: Mythril Armor. It’s the most powerful armor in the game, but if you fail to get it at the Paradise, there’s no other way to obtain it.
** Likewise with the Pickaxes for Talan. Enchanted Pickaxe is the most powerful weapon Talan can wield, excepting those crafted by Sern. Yet, if you don’t buy it during the Defender test, there’s no other way to obtain it.

A freeware cyberpunk RPG made with RPG Maker 2000, '''A Blurred Line''' follows the story of Talan, a regular blue-collar worker at a factory run by the powerful Delcentric. When the Director of the Agency is assassinated after giving a speech at the factory Talan works at, Talan finds himself the prime suspect and goes on the run. It's then up to Talan to evade his pursuers while getting to the bottom of the mystery at hand.

An freeware cyberpunk RPG made with RPG Maker 2000, '''A Blurred Line''' follows the story of Talan, a regular blue-collar worker at a factory run by the powerful Delcentric. When the Director of the Agency is assassinated after giving a speech at the factory Talan works at, Talan finds himself the prime suspect and goes on the run. It's then up to Talan to evade his pursuers while getting to the bottom of the mystery at hand.

----

** DishingOutDirt: The Yellow Aura spells. They include [=EarthShake=] and [=StingingPebbles=] AreaOfEffect attacks, self-explanatory [=FallingBoulder=], [=TurnToStone=] and [=SharpAsDiamonds=] (attack buff), [=WallOfStone=] and Inscribe (the buffs whatever elemental walls are already cast by the party). The final spell is to summon Original Golem.

* ReformedCriminal: If you let Memnosyne look into [[spoiler: Radin]] dreams’, he turns out to be a former bandit before he joined Paradise and abandoned his past. He continued to help the bandits around Paradise by delivering food to them, hoping that they’ll arrive at peace with Paradise once they’re not starved for food. He’s wrong, and bandit leader, Saren, tells him to get out as soon as he can.

* GogglesDoNothing: Averted for Talan. The visor he always wears turns out to be the only way he can see. If you have Talan take the first watch at Memnosyne’s house, she’ll look into his memories and find that memories past childhood are all blue-green in hue. When she asks, he reveals that his ocular nerves were destroyed by a degenerative disease when he was 13, and the visor’s implants are the only thing that gives him the limited vision he does have.

* GrievousBottleyHarm: A broken bottle can be found early on in the Rat Tracks. It’s stronger than a Bent Pipe that’s also lying around closely, but weaker than a Wrench you can pick up while still in Delcetor bulding.
** It’s even lampshaded when you can potentially take a Broken Bottle for a Craftsman for repair. He refuses to do it, saying that’s its more useful as a weapon anyway.
* GunsAreUseless: Agency Guards are equipped with assault rifles with added laser sights. Yet, when they’re first fought, they still deal roughly the same damage per turn as what Talan and Arden can inflict with a wrench and a knife, respectively. Similarly, Upgraded Walkers appear to carry twin gatling guns on their back, yet they still inflict barely twice the damage that regular Security Walkers do. For reference, if Talan is Level 8 and decked out in appropriate gear, that’s 6 damage versus 3, with full health being 79. Oh, and Red Wylden, a monster on the other side of the river, will inflict around 9 with regular two-handed swords.

* HiredGun: A Large Man on the street thinks that Talan is one of the best and actually lives at Boss Wick’s place because he must have had been paid tons of creds to kill the director. Of course, he’s totally wrong, as not only is Talan innocent, but he’s very poor as well.
* HopelessBossFight: Potentiall, the very first fight in the game is like that. If you choose a certain route to work in the opening, you're up against four Lazer Teeth thugs. No matter what equipment you buy at the shops with your 100 credits, it’s impossible to put down more than two before you’re defeated and taken prisoner.

** Same happens to [[spoiler: Kersh after he regains his memories.]] Experiencing the destruction he caused from the perspective of his victims sadly wasn't enough for him.

* ItemCrafting: Radin, a companion for Farmer Talan, is capable of crafting healing potions, stat-increasing ones and bombs out of the ingredients that can be found in chests or that he can dig up. Sern, a Defender companion, can create really powerful weapons as long as his skill (ncreased by scanning enemies during battles) is high enough.

* NoManWantsAnAmazon: Seems to be played straight, as Talan fails to develop feelings of any kind for the tough, tomboyish Arden in spite of having been with her for quite a while. Yet, he instantly falls for the far more feminine Emily.

* RoseHairedSweetie: Averted with Corporal Dalia, who is certainly not a nice person. She’s very stuffy and formal, and is also very ruthless. The latter is illustrated really well in [[spoiler: Sern’s dreams as seen by Memnosyne,]] where she considers the Agency Squad Leader test to be "incredibly easy". For reference, that test asks if you would sacrifice two of your friends for the sake of stopping a nuke launch by a crazed terrorist – i.e. something that would cause most people to at least question themselves if not outright refuse to do it.

** The first decision will affect whether you arrive late or on time (and thus whether you'll have time to claim your last wage and a few other good things), and change your companion for the pre-Paradise sections: walking there gets Talan involved in street gang warfare on the side of Neon Vipers, who later send a female member named Arden to help him. Waiting for the tram will result in Talan's credits stolen by a stolen goods merchants who compensates him with Ag 7-17, an outdated military droid that's good to go after Talan fixes it with a memory chip. Neither companion will make it into Paradise, however (Arden is captured, droid is forbidden by Paradise laws) and Talan will think about them in a DreamSequence.

* TapOnTheHead: In the Defender storyline, Talan gets knocked by a stone thrown at his head by a bandit, and comes back to his senses a while later with no ill effects.

** Then again, being able to hit an airborne dropship (which is what Agency Tram actually is) from the ground with knives and clubs already violates a lot of common sense.

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: For someone who used to be just a regular factory drone, Talan is oddly unfazed about killing unnamed people in his way. It’s possible to kill up to 2 Lazer Teeth thugs in his opening, yet Talan doesn't spare a single thought about them. He is equally uncaring about killing Agency Guards, who had nothing to do with framing him.
* WoodenKatanasAreEvenBetter: Averted. It’s possible to buy a Wooden Sword for Lerle at the Paradise Weapon Shop, but it’s so cheap and so weak that it’s practically pointless to do so. Other wooden weapons are also weaker than their metal counter-parts.

* LetsPlay: There's [[http://lparchive.org/A-Blurred-Line/ one]] done by Tobias Grant from Website/Something Awful.

An indie cyberpunk RPG made with RPG Maker 2000, A Blurred Line follows the story of ordinary blue-collar joe Talan, who works for the all powerful and omnipresent Company. When the Director of the Agency is assassinated after giving a speech at the factory Talan works at, Talan finds himself the prime suspect and goes on the run. It's then up to Talan to evade his pursuers while getting to the bottom of the mystery at hand.

The game is widely considered (within the RPG Maker community) to be one of the better games made with the program, mostly for its compelling story. Unfortunately, the game remains unfinished. Although the first two parts are complete, the final chapter, Line's End, has not been forthcoming. Since it's been several years since the release of the last chapter, and the creator of the game has moved on to other things, it's unlikely to be completed.

* CriticalHit: Present, although only protagonists can score those. They’re always referred to as “An excellent attack!”. Wearing items such as Lucky Bandana will increase their frequency. Weirdly, the ones inflicted by enemies are still referred to as a Critical Strike.

** Similarly, a bandit manages to shoot Isabella with a bow

** There’s also a Limited Palette version of this when you let Talan take the first watch at the Memnosyne’s house. [[spoiler: she tries to read his memories, and it turns out that he went blind at the age of 13, and can only see due to his visor, which doesn’t process colours besides blues and greens.

** DishingOutDirt: The Yellow Aura spells. They include [=EarthShake=] and [=StingingPebbles=] AreaOfEffect attacks, self-explanatory [=FallingBoulder=], [=TurnToStone=] and [=SharpAsDiamonds=] (attack buff), WallOfStone and Inscribe (the buffs whatever elemental walls are already cast by the party). The final spell is to summon Original Golem.

* FormerCrook: If you let Memnosyne look into [[spoiler: Radin]] dreams’, he turns out to be a former bandit before he joined Paradise and abandoned his past. He continued to help the bandits around Paradise by delivering food to them, hoping that they’ll arrive at peace with Paradise once they’re not starved for food. He’s wrong, and bandit leader, Saren, tells him to get out as soon as he can.

* HeelFaceBrainwashing: Happens to [[spoiler: Kersh]], after Memnosyne [[spoiler: transfers the memories of Surl’s destruction into his mindto punish him for the false-flag attack that led to it]]. It doesn’t last, however, and he goes back to his evil self after [[spoiler: discovering the Package.

* HopelessBossFight: The very first fight in the game is against four Lazer Teeth thugs. No matter what equipment you buy at the shops with your 100 credits, it’s impossible to put down more than two before you’re defeated and taken prisoner.

* HyperactiveMetabolism: Food snacks like a Bag of Chips,a Cold Sandwhich or Fresh Pita act as healing items, while Bottled Water and Cheap Wine restores SP.

* OlderThenTheyLook: As seen in the game's flashbacks, Kersh and the Agency Director don't appear to have aged in 30 years. The fact that [[spoiler: Kersh has no aura]] had led some to believe they are artificial humans.

* OurMummiesAreDifferent: There are mummy-like mosters called Decaying Shamblers fighting on the streets.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: There are the Green and Red Wylden, which are orc-like monsters equipped with swords that can be encountered on the World Map. Red ones are more powerful, but
* OurMinotaursAreDifferent: There’s a so-called Lair that lives in the labyrinth beneath the bandit hideout. It looks just like traditional minotaurs, complete with a huge warhammer and a nose ring, but is never referred to by that name.
* PaletteSwapping: Done for quite a few enemies. For instances, Skilled Bandits look like Rogue Bandits with green cloaks, Mighty Shellocks are a purple version of regular Shellocks, Living Molds are toxic-pink versions of [=AlleyMuck=], etc.

! Tropes:

* DecoyProtagonist: The prologue is from the viewpoint of Kersh, Cole and Manta as they try to stop Talan from destroying the Link holding the Catch Colony to the Earth. The rest of the game sets up Talan's motives for doing such an act.
* LetsPlay: There's [[http://lparchive.org/A-Blurred-Line/ one]] done by Tobias Grant from Website/SomethingAwful.
* MegaCorp: The Agency.
* MindRape: [[spoiler:What Mnemosyne essentially does to the Agency Captain/Kersh, leaving him [[GoMadFromTheRevelation quite scarred]]. Unfortunately, the Package helps him [[UnexplainedRecovery snap out of it]].]]
* OlderThanTheyLook: As seen in the game's flashbacks, Kersh and the Agency Director don't appear to have aged in 30 years. The fact that [[spoiler:Kersh has no aura]] had led some to believe they are artificial humans.
* OrphanedSeries: Most likely the case, unfortunately, as the game has not been updated in nearly 10 years.
* PowerCopying: Two characters have variations on this:
** Talan can perceive and absorb the auras of his enemies, gaining new spells in the process. If he absorbs a spell enough times, he retains it permanently.
** Lerle, an actor, has the ability to "act" like certain enemies and learn their forms for use in later fights. Somewhat more difficult to use than Talan's ability, since it doesn't work on all enemies and only works on single-enemy encounters.

* OrphanedSeries

* OlderThanTheyLook: As seen in the game's flashbacks, Kersh and the Agency Director don't appear to have aged in 30 years. The fact that [[spoiler:Kersh has no aura]] had led some to believe they are artificial humans.

* OrphanedSeries

An indie cyberpunk RPG made with RPG Maker 2000, A Blurred Line follows the story of ordinary blue-collar joe Talan, who works for the all powerful and omnipresent Company. When the President of the Company is assassinated after giving a speech at the factory Talan works at, Talan finds himself the prime suspect and goes on the run. It's then up to Talan to evade his pursuers while getting to the bottom of the mystery at hand.

* MegaCorp: The Company.

* LetsPlay: There's [[http://lparchive.org/A-Blurred-Line/ one]] done by Tobias Grant from SomethingAwful.

* MindRape: [[spoiler:What Mnemosyne essentially does to the Agency Captain/Kersh, leaving him [[GoMadFromTheRevelation quite scarred]]. Unfortunately, the Package helps him [[IGotBetter snap out of it]].]]
* OrphanedSeries

* AIIsACrapshoot: Advocate.

* MindRape: [[spoiler:What Mnemosyne essentially does to the Agency Captain, leaving him [[GoMadFromTheRevelation quite scarred]]. Unfortunately, the Package helps him [[IGotBetter snap out of it]].]]

The game is widely considered (within the RPG Maker community) to be one of the better games made with the program, mostly for its compelling story. Unfortunately, the game remains unfinished. Although the first two parts are complete, the final chapter, Line's End, has not been forthcoming. Since it's been several years since the release of the last chapter, and the creator of the game has moved on to other things, it's unlikely to be completed.

The game is widely considered (within the RPG Maker community) to be one of the better games made with the program, mostly for its compelling story. Unfortunately, the game remains unfinished. Although the first two parts are complete, the final chapter, Lines End, has not been forthcoming. Since it's been several years since the release of the last chapter, and the creator of the game has moved on to other things, it's unlikely to be completed.